Any Excuse for a Family Get together

It doesn't take much of an excuse for the Altus mob to get together & what a better idea to include food with it. We ventured down to George & Liz's for a spot of lunch. Old Pa was in his element with some of his grandies & great-grandies present. All in all we had a great time together, good food & great company. Thanks for the fun time

Old Pa & Aunty Cath

6 busy little ones

Tucker time for Maddie, Hollie & Josh

Match box toys are hard to beat.......... Toby & Jaqui

Ben & Thomas

Boys & their Toys or Midlife Crisis?

One Sunday afternoon while the sun was trying to shine from behind some clouds, we had a visit from Uncle Glen & Aunty Merry in their little red car. Uncle Glen claimed that he had not taken it for a run for sooooo long & it need one.

Arriving in the beautifully restored 'Red Rocket' Datsun 2000

Aunty Merry doing the 'K-Mart catalogue pose'.
Thanks for the visit. It was really good to see you and to have a good look at the new toy!

Holidays!

With the most pressing of farm jobs done, it was now or never to make an effort in getting away for a couple of weeks. Didn't take us long to pack up the camping gear into the Cruiser & raid the pantry & freezer for some food & we were off..........................
Sydney was our first port of call. Last chance to catch up with Relle, Sami & La before the new addition arrives & before Sami & La disappeared to Turkey for a family visit.

Pa complained that his toe was hurting and he needed to see a Podiatrist! Just the excuse La needed to practice her Podiatry skills.

With Relle needing to finish her Thesis Paper & Sami working, it gave us a wonderful weekend of complete La time. She had her Grandies all to herself. AND we enjoyed it!!!!

We went off to do some bush walking and found the Wentworth Falls. La not quite sure of what the little fella is really on about.

We decided to walk back to the car park via the Undercliff walk with all the dripping water that La was trying to dodge.

La did a great job in painting her fairy plaque, complete with stickers. Will take pride of place on her bedroom wall. (hope those fridge magnets turned out OK.)

Playing pretend 'sleep over' with Pa in the cubby. (he kept annoying one young lady)

After the weekend we had to say our farewells & head north up to the Gold Coast for a conference.

This was the view from our balcony at the Vibe Hotel on the Gold Coast.

When we had finished at the Coast we ventured up to Jill & Clarrie's at Beerwah for a few days.
AND as it would happen we arrived just as they had became Grand parents again. Cassie, Dave & Jess announced the arrival of Lachlan John Hawkey.
CONGRATULATIONS!

After leaving Beerwah we ventured out to Roma to visit Paul, Deb, Thomas & Edward.
We had lots of fun with them, watching the boys do their gymnastics, playing footy, doing some gardening & playing 3D snakes & ladders.

With Uncle Leon in the mix there was fierce competition to keep Edward from winning. Lots of laughs & fun was had by us all. (only once did some one else win!!!)
When we got on the road again it was off towards Birdsville.

The famous Birdsville Pub. The weather was warmer than we had been used to, so the Beer tasted really good.

We got down to the Cooper Creek Crossing on the Birdsville track & camped the night. While there we took a boat cruise on the Cooper to view the river & its birdlife at sunset. Amazing sights.

Crossing the Cooper on the Ferry

Ma ma sitting in the MV Tom Brenan. The original punt over the Cooper Creek crossing.

Pa having a tub at the Clayton Wayside Camping site on the Birdsville track

We did a detour into the Flinders Ranges & had an overnight & day stop at Willow Springs.

Ma ma & Pa on top of the mountain

We did the Willow Springs Skytrek and ended up on Mount Caernarvon Trig Point- 920 metres.
We travelled some rugged roads, steep inclines & had some fantastic scenery. A trip well worth taking if in the area.

Birthdays!

Come 1st Sept each year and we celebrate a couple of birthdays. Jack turned 3 and Pa well he turned 50 something. (insists he is still 49!) We got together to help these two lads celebrate their birthday.
There is another special person who celebrates her birthday on the same day,
Happy Birthday Nanno Marg. Hope you had an awesome day.

The Birthday boys lighting their candles
Jack couldn't wait to test out the smarties

Birthdays are fun says Will.............by the look of his face he enjoyed the cake.


On the Sunday following their birthdays, Jack had a party with some of his little friends

Spiderman Jack, thanks to Carla

Tiger Toby

Time to blow out the candles on his Roller Cake. Dad & Mum did a good job on its design!

Camping, Jack & Will style

The other week, Jack bounced in at home to tell us in a very excited fashion that he was going camping with Mum, Dad & Will. Such enthusiasm & excitement was evident on his little face. So out to the camper we went to find the tent, the billy & the bbq plate so they could go camping.

Ma ma & Pa decided to gate crash their camping site to have a spot of tea with them & to see how the boys were enjoying their adventure. We found them all set up & the fire going all in readiness for the evening meal.

This is the life says Will, me & Bella can play & have fun getting down & dirty!

Just testing out my swag to make sure it is comfy.

This is me and Pa having a spell after all our hard work and checking out the scenery.

What a cute lad..................

That is what we needed the billy for........to make our pop corn! Not for a cup of tea!
Jack assured us the next day that they had great time camping out.

Our Visit to Sydney

We don't need a much of a reason to visit Relle, Sami & La, but the one we found was quite a good one. And that was to attend Travis & Millie's wedding. Relle has posted on her blog many photos on our visit & I will include a few more of the happenings. We had a wonderful time with the grand kids & their mum's & dad's. Thanks for having us Relle & Sami.

The gorgeous couple ..............Trav & Millie

Congratulations!

After the ceremony and afternoon tea, the children came back with Ma ma & Pa to discover some of La la's toys & the cubby house in the back yard.

This is pretty good hey, Jack! (wonder if Dad & Pa will build us one?)

This is my type of house...... yay!!!

We got to visit Uncle Sami at his fire station & even better we got to crawl all over his fire truck & play with the big hoses. Gee...... this is a tough job for a tough fella isn't it Uncle Sami?

Uncle Sami and his off siders

A music lesson from the master. Jack watching very intently to get it right!

Relle and La la's Visit

As you will have seen from Relle's blog, they came to the farm for a visit. It was great to have them around for a couple of weeks & while they were here other family members visited as well. We were able to have a couple of gatherings where Old Pa was able to catch up with all of his precious Great Grandies.

I am having lots of practise with this 'walking bit' but still have do some more of it. Have tried a couple of steps by myself but not just yet!

La la doing the rounds on the veranda. Boy can you clock up some kms!

Races.........................Will drags the bucket!!! But boy can he move when needed!

Aunty Laura painted our nails with bright pink polish.............

Don't they look pretty?

A spot of afternoon lunch

Time for some 'Pa time'.

Our little man, Master Mitchell

Jack was 'plumb tuckered out' after such a busy day with his cousins

Gorgeous Miss Alara with her painted face from the Servi Fellowship Family Tea

June Long weekend

We had the call to go for a visit to Echuca to catch up with the Grandies. On Friday we had the pleasure of looking after Mitchell while Mum Julz & Lexie went off to Kindy. We had a lovely morning with our little man just playing around & showing us all of his toys in the play room. After lunch we went off to pick up Lexie from Kindy & then had some retail therapy.

Hello Ma ma, I'm talkin to Tyson..............if I can wake him up!

I'm just telling Pa what he has to do......................we are playing Mum's & Dad's

On Saturday we ventured over the highway to the Steam Rally. Lots of olden day stuff!
(Old Nana & Pa loved these events!)

A beautifully restored vehicle.

The beautiful Carlton & United Breweries Draught Horses


On Sunday afternoon we decided to take the boat out for a run up the Murray River. The sun was shining with a cool breeze but we rugged up & the time spent on the river was lovely.

All set and off we go.

With the sun shining, the boat humming along & a nice snuggly place on Ma ma it was all a bit much for Lexie so she had 40 winks on the way home.
Thanks for the lovely weekend Julz, Nat, Lexie & Mitchell.